This WeekThis week there's bird talk, hypermiling and other car matters, hospital ratings, the Ainu of Japan, 100 years of the FBI, Independence Day, and the American lawn. Bon appetit from librarians Wendy, Maria, Charlotte, and Jennifer.

Tip of the WeekRead up on fireworks -- safety, photography, public displays, and more.

Lawn Nation: Art and Science of the American Lawn
Companion to a 2008 exhibit in which "[o]ver thirty artists, designers, filmmakers, scientists, and landscape architects consider America's big green carpet." Includes galleries of outdoor and outdoor works (such as time-lapse photography of "Revenge of the Lawn" in which grass grows over a furniture-shaped installation), and links to sites on using less water and fewer chemicals. From the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, the museum of the Chicago Academy of Sciences.
URL: http://www.naturemuseum.org/lawn/
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/26260

Recaptcha
"A 'captcha' is a program that can tell whether its user is a human or a computer [such as those with distorted images of letters]." You can use this site to help stop receiving email spam "by asking people to solve a recaptcha before they can view your email address" (if you are running a web application that lists user's email addresses). This process uses unclear images from digitized books. From Carnegie Mellon University.
URL: http://recaptcha.net/
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/25938

Government

FBI History: Radio Sound Bytes
These interviews of a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) historian are "part of a special radio series called 'FBI 100: A Closer Look,' [in which the historian is] sharing his perspectives and insights into various aspects" of the history of the FBI, which began operation in July 1908. Read or listen to the brief interviews on topics such as the early days of terrorism, police corruption, La Cosa Nostra, and Elliot Ness. From the FBI.
URL: http://www.fbi.gov/radiobytes/archives.htm
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/26265

Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People
Website companion to a 1999-2000 "major exhibition to explore the ancient origin of the Ainu, their evolving relations with the Japanese, and the 20th century Ainu cultural rebirth." Images are accompanied by text and audio and cover topics such as spiritual traditions, trade, homes, activities of men and women, arts, language, and other aspects of Ainu culture. From the Arctic Studies Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
URL: http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/features/ainu/
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/26283

Fourth of July Is Independence Day
Collection of links to material related to Independence Day. "Independence Day honors the birthday of the United States of America and the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. It's a day of picnics and patriotic parades, a night of concerts and fireworks, and a reason to fly the American flag." Topics include fireworks, summer safety tips, and virtual visits to historic sites. From USA.gov, the U.S. government's official Web portal.
URL: http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Independence_Day.shtml
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/26252